If Google search numbers are any indication, Americans’ interest in getting information on the health-care overhaul has surged dramatically — after the main bill has been passed.

Bloomberg News

Marcelas Owens, 11, from Seattle, looks on as U.S. President Barack Obama signs the health insurance reform bill in the White House.

Searches for terms like “health care reform” have been consistent through most of the debate, rising during the summer’s town-hall meetings and when the House and Senate passed their initial version of the bill. But this week, searches are about 20 times as high as their average since July. Google doesn’t release exact numbers, but just to give you an idea of how interested people are: The peak of U.S. searches for the term “health care bill” was more than double that of searches for “March Madness.”

The surge hasn’t been lost on the political players and interest groups, said Google’s head of political advertising, Peter Greenberger. Although the bill has passed, elections are always around the corner. Mr. Greenberger said advertisers have been targeting related searches in order to lead users to sites ranging from “Fire Nancy Pelosi” to a Democratic National Committee site where users are exhorted to “co-sign” the health-reform bill. Mr. Greenberger said many efforts are geared toward local campaigns and target users in specific areas. Both sides have been roughly even in their ad purchases through the debate, Mr. Greenberger said.

Both sides are targeting searches of not only generic terms but also of more loaded terms such as Obamacare or health reform — terms that tend to be used by only one side. “The Democrats used that strategy to knock down myths,” advertising on searches for “death panels,” Mr. Greenberger said.

Mr. Greenberger said that overall the health-care debate has had the highest level of participation in political advertising that he’s seen. “Not the Iraq war, not even the election” had this many groups buying ads, he said, adding that “this is the first issue-advocacy debate since search and online advertising has seen some level of maturity.”

What does this mean for American political debate? On one hand, the fact that health-care searches were beating out queries for basketball and Sandra Bullock could show that the public is engaged with the debate. On the other, it’s unclear whether after the bill has passed is the best time to show interest.

Mr. Greenberger, for his part, said he sees Internet search and advertising as a tool for democratization of the debate. “The way the debate played out in 1994, you had a handful of very powerful interests,” he said. “But in 2010 we’ve had interest across advertisers from those with the very deepest pockets to individual doctors.”